Breathe (17 page)

“You’re crazy. You know that?”

“Well, a man’s got to protect his own, sugar.” I was sure he was exaggerating to make me feel good, but it was cute in a caveman sort of way.

The drive wasn’t very long, and we were soon downtown. It was an interesting little area. The streets were blocked off. There were canopies set up with live music and vendors all over. Cajun music could be heard the minute we opened the car doors.

“I know we’re eating early, but they have this Art Walk thing once a month down here. I thought we could walk around and look in the art galleries and museums after. The live music is usually really good too.”

“That sounds really nice.” He had put a lot of thought into the date. No dinner and a movie for Dream Guy. I should have known. “Will we be able to see any of your mom’s work?”

“Yeah. I think you’ll like it. It’s really good. Of course, if I don’t say that she’ll take a switch to me, so…” He shrugged. Could he be more adorable?

We were apparently going to a Cajun restaurant. When we got there, we were seated right away in a nice, quiet table in the back. Easton pulled my chair out for me. I felt like we really were a couple. Even though it wasn’t technically our first date, it felt like it. Thankfully, some of the embarrassing first-date stuff was out of the way.

As we checked out the menu, I decided to let him choose for me. I had no idea what I might like in a Cajun restaurant, so why not? It was one of those things you see in movies that I had always wanted to do. Having the guy order for me sounded so romantic. It also solved the worry of ordering something too expensive. Dating was so complicated.

“Jasmine, what would you like?”

“You can just choose for me. You’ve been here before, right?”

“My family comes here a lot. We like to each order something different and pass it around.

“That sounds fun. I’m not picky, so you choose.”

“All right, but don’t hold it against me if you don’t like it. Although, I haven’t had anything here I didn’t like. Where does your family like to go? Have you tried any of the restaurants here yet?”

“No, we really haven’t gone anywhere since we moved. My mom’s hours are long, so we really don’t go out. I remember when my dad was with us, he would take us out all the time. We used to go down to Chinatown to this really authentic Chinese restaurant. It even had ducks hanging in the window. It freaked me out. I never would eat duck when we went.”

“You never talk about your dad. Do you mind me asking what happened to him?”

“No, I don’t mind. I just don’t think about him much anymore. He’s been away so long, and so much has happened. He was from Ireland. Did I tell you that?”

“No, I knew you must be Irish with the last name Rourke, but I didn’t know your dad was actually from there.”

“Well, he immigrated here on a temporary work visa. He met my mom and they fell in love.” I pulled a face. It was difficult to picture that my parents ever felt that way, now that I had serious feelings for Easton. Yuck.

“For whatever reason, after they got married, he never got his citizenship. That was when they were really cracking down on people getting married just to get US citizenship. One night, he got into a bar fight. It wasn’t completely his fault. Some guy was threatening his girlfriend, so my dad stepped in and beat the guy up pretty bad. My dad is a bit of a hotheaded Irishman. He was arrested and deported.

“My mom was really angry. She told him that if he couldn’t put his family first, it was over. She wasn’t going to drag us to Ireland when he couldn’t be responsible. He had some trouble with drinking, and I think she just figured her life was easier without the drama. He was a good dad when he was around, but not terribly consistent. Then, he was just gone.”

“What about after what happened to Daisy? Did he come back?”

“No, he wasn’t allowed. Even for the funeral. He was kicked out of the country for ten years. He has three or four years left before he can apply again. He used to call a lot, but after Daisy, we really haven’t heard from him. He sent a beautiful letter to be read at her funeral and then… nothing.”

He looked thoughtful.

“I told you I come with a lot of drama.” I gave him a fake stern look. “You can’t say you weren’t warned.”

“I was just thinking that you’ve had a lot of sadness and loss in your life.”

“Well, lately it’s been looking up.” I smiled at him. I really was smiling all the time now. My life was going so well, it was kind of scary after the years of bad stuff.

We ate and laughed the rest of the evening. Dinner was amazing. Sharing our food was romantic. We walked around downtown Lafayette, looking at lots of art. Some we liked, some we hated, and some we didn’t understand why they called it art. We went to see his mom’s, which I loved. She had this mysterious kind of unique style. She painted gorgeous landscapes of the countryside in Lafayette: swamps, rivers, and beautiful sweeping trees. I was incredibly impressed.

Our date had been so amazing, I wished it would never end. As we drove home that night with the windows down, I prayed and prayed that my life would stay exactly the way it was at that moment.

The next night, I was thinking about Easton and how perfect the date had gone. I was surprised at how good my life was going. Maybe God just felt I deserved a break.

Unfortunately, my break officially ended.

As I was getting ready for bed, my phone rang. I flung myself onto my bed to reach my purse on the floor on the other side. By the time I wrangled out my phone, I just answered without looking at who was calling.

“Hello?”

I heard music playing low, and then it got louder. It was the song they’d played at Daisy’s candlelight vigils. I was stunned. The only people who would know that were in Los Angeles, not here in Louisiana. I could feel myself starting to hyperventilate. What was going on? I hung up.

Really? Are people this cruel? Do they think that’s funny? Who would do something so awful? I hated that song. It’s beautiful, but awful. They only used it because it had her name in it. That song did not represent my sister. My sister was full of life and happiness. Not at all like the song talked about. I had a minor temper tantrum when we planned her funeral. I didn’t want that played. My mother agreed.

Now I was fuming. Great. I would have to tell Easton, and he was going to freak out, but I had promised. This is where our agreement was going to get difficult. I didn’t want to tell anyone about this. As much as I wanted to be honest, I knew this was all related to the stupid flyers last week. I knew Easton wouldn’t see it that way, and he would want me to tell my mom or something. Ugh! I needed to calm down first. I would take a shower, think about what I was going to say, and then call. A plan was good.

Now here is the thing with plans. Ever heard the saying “When we plan, God laughs?” Yeah, well, it’s totally true. Or I plan and Caedan laughs. And then he is tortured within an inch of his life.

I turned on the shower and got in. It was fine until the water got hot and then… tea. Yup, he had put tea bags in the showerhead, and I was doused with hot tea—peppermint, to be exact. My favorite. “Ahhhhhhhhhh! Caedan! You little creep!” I yelled. Of course, by the time the tea came through, I was washing my hair, so I had to rinse out the shampoo, and now I smelled and was covered in peppermint tea. I jumped out of the shower, grabbed a towel, dried off, and threw my clothes back on. In the mood I was in, he was going to suffer. Big. I stomped down the hallway on a mission.

“Caedan, where are you, you little cretin? Don’t think you can hide, either. I
will
find you!” I heard giggling from Lily’s room. Aha! He thought she would protect him. I think not.

I flung open the door. “Where is your evil twin? And don’t think you can hide him. It won’t go well for you.” Lily was sitting on her bed pretending to read. She was grinning and finally looked up at me.

“I… uh… don’t know.” She looked down at her book and then sideways at her closet. Boy, he was losing his touch. I flung open the closet door and saw the toe of his sneaker peeking out from under Lily’s laundry pile. I grabbed his feet and pulled.

“You little freak! Did you think you could hide from me? You are done!”

By this time, Caedan was shouting, “Let me go! You weren’t supposed to shower until tomorrow morning.”

This explained a lot. He was probably thinking he would get out early and catch the first bus, so he wouldn’t see me until after school. I had veered off my normal schedule and messed up his plan. I held him down and started tickling him. I know this sounds too nice for retribution, but you have to understand how much Caedan hated to be tickled. It wasn’t funny to him. It was torture. Just what was called for.

“Are you trying to make this better or worse for yourself?” I knew I wouldn’t be able to pull this off for very much longer because he was getting bigger, but for now it worked.

“Okay, okay, stop, stop. I’m sorry.” He was writhing around on the floor trying to get away.

“I don’t think so. Sorry for what? Sorry you got caught? Sorry I showered tonight and not tomorrow morning? What are you sorry for?” I was sitting on him now, while I tickled him, and he was miserable.

“Sorry, just sorry.”

Hmmm… “Well, what do you need to say to get out of this mess, Caedan?”

“Okay! Okay! Jasmine is the Most Beautiful High Queen of Pranks, and there should be a statue in her honor. Okay, please stop,” he gasped out while trying to catch his breath. I laughed and got up off him.

“That’s right and don’t you forget it.” I narrowed my eyes at him as he stood up. I held my fist out to him, and we fist bumped. “Nice one.” We smirked at each other. “Watch your back.” I threw that remark over my shoulder as I went back to the bathroom to take out the tea bags and shower again.

As amusing as torturing Caedan was, I was still hearing those song lyrics in my head. Those compartments were getting really full again. I really didn’t want to tell Easton about that phone call. Why did my life have to be so complicated?

In all the craziness of the night before, I ended up not talking to Easton and telling him about the music call. It took me longer than I thought getting the showerhead off and then back on. I had to scrub to get the peppermint smell off me. It was too late to call when I got into bed, so I just texted him good night.

The next morning we weren’t alone for even a minute. The twins and Trenton were in the car, and they all seemed to be talking a mile a minute. Lily decided to relate the entire tea bag/shower incident to Easton and Trenton. I realized, at that moment, my sister was not entirely without guile. She had them engrossed in the whole story.

First, she related how juvenile she thought Caedan and I were with our many past pranks. She made it sound like she was forced into helping Caedan. She played up the twin connection that, on a normal day, she thought was ridiculous. She made the entire caper sound like a super-secret CIA mission with detail and precision planning. She had them laughing and shocked at points. Then she wrapped the story up in a pretty little bow for them. I could tell they thought she was a riot. I sat quietly, smiling. I didn’t chime in because she was pretty fair in the telling, and I was so happy to see her acting like her vivacious self again, I couldn’t bring myself to interrupt.

“Jasmine, I can’t believe you are such a prankster. That doesn’t seem at all like you.” Easton was grinning.

From the backseat, Caedan mumbled under his breath, “Shows how much he knows.”

I turned and glared at him. When I turned back, I told Easton that I really only pranked when it was necessary to crush evildoers. He smiled. “Yes, ma’am, I can see that.”

After we parted ways before first period, I didn’t see him the rest of the day. I had PSAT testing and didn’t have a regular schedule. Our school was hosting our first cross-country meet this afternoon, so our talk would probably need to wait until tonight. I was a little nervous about the meet, since I hadn’t competed in a few years, but overall I was excited. My mom couldn’t make it because of work. This was a first, but Easton and Trenton both said they would be there at the end to watch me cross the finish line.

After school, I went to the girls’ locker room and got changed for the meet. There would be three other schools there, so it wasn’t a huge meet—just a small one to start off the season.

We all lined up and took off at the gun. I told myself to get my head into that space where I could run and not worry about where everyone else was. After about ten minutes, it worked. We had a 5k run to finish, and that seemed easy. The route was beautiful and took us along a twisting road where the trees grew thick by the river. The colors on the trees were starting to turn just a little, and I was enjoying the experience.

I had pulled out in front and was by myself, when I heard someone coming up behind me. I was about to kick up my speed a little to stay ahead, but I was jerked off my feet by my hair. Pain shot through my head and I gasped. What was happening?

I tried to jerk out of their grasp, but whoever it was had a tight hold.

I landed against something hard, and the air whooshed out of my lungs. I was being dragged into the trees. It happened fast. I was spun around and dragged some more. I took a big gulp of air to scream, but before I could, he pressed his hand over my mouth and nose. The real panic hit. I couldn’t breathe.